Regional Profiles/Maps

Click here to view the Southern Willamette Valley Regional Profile (PDF)

Referenced Maps (Click on map name to view PDF): Settlement Patterns | Historic Vegetation
Land Ownership | Potential Constraints to Development
Population Density | Soil Classes on Agriculturally Zoned Lands
Productivity of Forest-Zoned Lands

Oregon's Southern Willamette Valley is a narrow, fertile trough between the Coast and Cascade Range in the middle of the state. From the pure, clear waters of Waldo Lake, streams that form the Willamette River tumble down the Cascades and flow through the Southern Willamette Valley northward to join the Columbia River. Originating further north in the Cascades, the McKenzie River joins the Willamette near the center of the valley where the earliest and largest settlement clusters formed in the 1,000-square-mile Southern Willamette Valley region. Over time, evergreen forests, favored by the area's mild, wet winters, blanketed the region's mountainsides and later employed its people.

The region's boundaries are defined by early settlements that occurred over the past 150 years in the developable flatlands of the valley and extended into the Cascade Range to the south. The region has developed around a convenient travel distance from the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area where its inhabitants share a common watershed, air shed, commute shed, and growth shed.

Today, the Southern Willamette Valley region is a unique combination of metropolitan cities, small towns, rural communities, productive farmlands, and dense forests. The region contains ten cities, 15 rural communities, and the most productive forests in Oregon. Eugene-Springfield, the second largest metropolitan area in the state, serves as the center of the region's commerce, industry, higher education, and government. While the outlying communities recognize the interdependent nature of the regional economy, they strive to maintain a certain degree of independence from the metropolitan area. Many of these communities are struggling to diversify their economies following the decline of the timber industry in the 1980s.

For profiles of the rural area and the ten cities in the region, please click here.

PDF files require Acrobat Reader. Download Reader by clicking the above link or image.